Where are we Heading?

Ian Hodder is an archaeologist who is professor of anthropology at Stamford, and brings an unusual turn of mind to his discussion of the evolution of humans and things. His argument goes beyond what he considers to be the two prevailing modes of thought about human evolution, namely the Enlightenment idea of progress towards a civilised ideal and the 'directionless process of natural selection.' Instead, he proposes that the direction of human evolution is based on entanglement and 'an ever increasing mutual dependency between humans and things.' The process is cumulative and progressively more complex as we engage with and use up more energy and resources. Interestingly, he brings Bergson's elan vital to his argument while applying it to his own theory 'stuff draws humans into an engagement that leads to directional change' which is not in fact progress since we cannot equate homo faber with homo sapiens in terms of its true meaning. The development of digital technology in our own time makes this case very clear.

The author illustrates his thesis with a number of interesting examples, including the development of the wheel in its many forms and that of pottery. The key element is the increasing mutual dependency expressed in the equation that human dependence on things (HT) leads to thing dependence on other things (TT) and thing dependence on humans (TH), producing greater human dependence on things (HT). This can also apply to organic processes such as the development of cereals. Surprisingly, in view of his 'tanglegrams' - for instance clay use in an indigenous society - the author does not use the vocabulary of systems. His long archaeological view of things and artefacts gives his overall argument an interesting slant. He is, however, sanguine about our future prospects as we get caught up in managing the entanglements on which we depend and the fact that we have tended to 'deal with problems by finding technological ways of changing the world rather than changing our dependence on things.' Moreover, the accumulation of things tends to lead to social inequality where elites are further enabled by the entanglements that serve them. However, 'modern technical solutions are likely only to increase entanglements and problematic conjunctions over the long term', with the implication that short-term technological solutions lock us into long-term pathways, as is the case with geo-engineering - so we need a critical evaluation of these chains of entanglement, becoming more sapiens and less faber. Certainly a stimulating thesis.